Warning meters in 300,000 homes could stop working

Just had a customer ask me to connect their peak and off peak supply tails together because the meter fitter refused to do it. Not been to site yet to do the work, and there may be a complication. But surely combining the the two feeds should be part of the meter fitters job, I am going to have to cut the seal on the fuse and probably the meter to complete the task.

I have had to separate peak and off peak supplies that have been combined using Henley blocks.

One of them was a house with an electric storage AGA cooker.

It was dangerous and the customer had big electric bills, 

Seems a bit odd - be aware there are several sorts of off-peak meter, some where the rate switch is not rated for the off peak load, but rather expects to operate a contactor. And some of those were neutral switched, just to muddy the water.

Unless the off-peak load is being removed, I can't quickly see why you'd want to combine meter tails - and I can well imagine the meter fitter could not either.

Mike.

Nice find - The CAM3 was designed for Class A operation. The close (slightly modified) version CAT6 was designed for Class B operation.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL

The house with the electric storage Aga had two separate meters, peak and off-peak, in two separate external meter boxes, each with their own DNO main isolation switch and their own customer’s fused main switches protecting the meter tails which ran for around five metres to a Henley block where they were combined, with a single pair of tails going into another Henley block, where they split to go to two separate consumer units for the peak and off peak installations.

Isolating one of the supplies at both its DNO and customers main switches left both the peak and off peak installations connected to the other supply, but it could have been the timed supply which was still connected, so both the installation could have been reenergised by the time clock despite having been proved dead, this issue was compounded as the timing was completely out on the clock so the off peak supply actually came on during what would normally be expected to be an off period.

Combining the supply increased the bills, the Aga charged as it cooled so would just use the peak supply as and when and I would assume when both supplies were actually available it would pull half the load through each meter, so the customer always overpaid and never benefited from having the off-peak tariff.

Also, when both supplies were live the supplies had two 100-amp fuses in parallel.

It was dangerous for electricians and meter operatives to work on the installations, and increased the customer electric bills.

wow!
One of those where you are left wondering what the original installer was thinking - as you say both dangerous and expensive - sounds like it should have been separate or had a change-over switch for those odd moments of 'must heat up now, hang the cost'
Mike.

mapj1 said:

Unless the off-peak load is being removed, I can't quickly see why you'd want to combine meter tails - and I can well imagine the meter fitter could not either.

Mike.

The meter change has been triggered by the switch off, but my understanding is that the customer is also replacing the storage heaters with heaters that have built in timers and will use a 24 hour supply. The switch to new heaters is delayed due to budget, I think there is a significant risk that the customer doesn't find the budget by the time things get cold, which may question the decision.

I thought all new meters just had a single output and the peak, off peak was just based on time of day and the customer was responsible for implementing any timed switch required. So the customer appears to have no choice but to change, then either switch to new heaters or have me install a timer with contactor to drive the storage heaters.

5-port smart meters do exist.  But some suppliers seem to have trouble sourcing them, and make it the customer's problem.

Hello Alan:

Here in my area in Florida the price of electrical power does not change throughout the day.

The only option for a lower overall charge is if one signs up to allow the power company to completely shut of the power to your house, if and when they have an overloaded situation.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL

My mother has an all electric retirtement flat with E7 meter worked by a teleswitch as do all the other residents in the block. She has a very poor phone signial and prbaly even worse inside the store cupboard containing the meter and consumer units.

EON are coming to fit a Smart meter this month but ahve been unable to what they will do if the Smart meter does not function.

I have read on line that the Smart meter will still function switching the E7 supply on and off as this is embeded in the meter but we will have to supply monthly meter readings. 

Does anyone know if this is true?

Thanks

JP